In less than a month I’ve had two relatives die from various forms of cancer. My Great-uncle Richard died a few weeks ago. He was my mom’s uncle, my granddad’s brother. Last night my Uncle Buddy died. He was my dad’s brother. I didn’t really know either of these men very well.
So how am I supposed to respond to this? Both men were family that I knew. It’s been a couple years since I’ve seen my great-uncle and the last time I saw my uncle was probably in middle school at my grandma’s funeral. I wasn’t close to either of them, but they are family. So how am I supposed to respond? What emotions should I feel?
Sure, I’m saddened at the loss of two of my family members and, of course, wish I had gotten to know each of them better than I did. But because I didn’t know either of them very well, I’m more saddened by the loss my granddad and mom felt over Uncle Richard’s death and the loss my dad and Uncle J.C. are feeling over the loss of their brother.
Thank you in advance for your thoughts and prayers for my family as they deal with these losses and the details that have to be finalized.
Wow,well said, and sad when we realize how often we don’t really know family and how we allow them to drift away. I still have the photos you took when you did the “touristy” stuff when Richard and Cornelia were here and maybe Cindy and the girls years ago!
We may not always agree with family, we may even fight it out at times, but family is family, God put us in that family for a reason and we need to learn to love them and stay in contact.
It’s sad to see our family starting to disappear. We have laughed and said we need to have a ‘family ‘ reunion…well, maybe we really DO need to do that so we can find everyone and get reacquainted and catch up on where everyone is these days instead of waiting on funerals and marriages to be the reason to see one another…your dad’s Cousin Gayle said it best…let’s get together while we can enjoy the time! Cindy and I said we all need to get together and I see a vacation to Utah or somewhere where we can all meet and vacation together next summer on my side of the family.
Ditto on your words…thank you for the prayers lifted for our family these last few weeks and now.